An Old 54

54 Chevy Pickup. October 2001.

This is an old pickup truck I used to own.  A 1954 Chevy Truck.  My dad bought it off a friend of his back in '98 or '99 I believe.  I remember when he brought it home.  Right away he started tinkering around with it.  He basically brought it back to life from a non running vehicle.  I thought it was great!  I helped out a lot on that project.  Learned a lot and enjoyed every moment of it!  My Pop eventually got tired of it, like he does with everything, and decided to get rid of it.  I had to intervene.  So I suggest he sell it to me!  And of course he did.  Then I began tinkering with it on my own!  I rebuilt its rear end drive train completely!  It was a massive job.  Expensive too!  I believe I dumped well over $2,000 at the time!  It ran so much better after that, though.  The only problem I had with it after that point really was it's front end, and it's ability to break safely.  I started to consider rebuilding it's front end, as well as upgrading it's brakes from drum to disc.

Tinkering Under The Hood. June 4th, 2002.

Grandpa loved that old truck just as much as any car enthusiast.  He would come over on weekends and usually end up tinkering around under the hood with me and Dad.  So I caught him in the act a few times.  He had a lot of knowledge to impart.  I learned a lot from Grandpa about old cars.  Learned that cars even from the 50's era were a lot more maintenance free than cars from his earlier years in the 40's.  He would tell me things like, "These trucks were real good back in those days.  You could go for 3 thousand miles before changing the oil!.  On the old 39 I had, you'd have to change the oil every 1,000 miles, and check the gaps, and adjust the valves if they need it..." Sounds like a lot of work Grandpa!

Skewed Perspective. October 2001.

This is one of my first attempts at painting the old truck  not long after my dad acquired it.  It was sitting in the driveway all tore up.  Missing front wheels and various parts torn out of the front end.  My dad was rebuilding the front end drum brakes at the time.  That's when I started learning about brakes.  From watching him and helping out on the job.  I was also brushing up on some long neglected perspective drawing too!  It looks pretty bad here, but I eventually remembered how to draw in perspective again.

Under The Hood. June 2002.

  After having rebuilt the rear end of the truck and enjoying the fruit of my labor I decided I didn't want to dump any more money into the project to continue rebuilding the whole thing.  It was getting too expensive.  It was a great learning experience and I had a lot of fun! But at this point, I had enjoyed spending my money and decided that if someone else is going to enjoy it as much as I did, it's time to turn it over.  I knew the day would come when I no longer would own it.  So I made some memories and captured them in pencil and paint.